Rachel is wrangling with her taxes this week, so we’ve decided to spend the page update on something a little different!

So, I’ve mentioned a few times in the past that I’ve been working with Jerome Jacinto (artist of Cain and Yurk and Song of the Eastern Sands) on a brand new story that takes place in the world of the Western Deep, and that it will begin shortly after Chapter 3 concludes. This teaser image doesn’t seem to reveal much…or does it?

I don’t want to reveal too much about it, of course–but I’ll just say that the original story began its life as a piece of prose that I wrote many years ago as a gift to Jerome that I just liked too much to NOT rewrite into a comic script. And of course since the original story had been a gift to Jerome in the first place, he was naturally interested in bringing it to life as a visual story. We’re both very excited to share it with you, and we’ll have more information about it as Chapter 3 draws to a close.

For guest art this week, a fun little piece that was emailed our way by an anonymous fan of the comic! I wanted to save this one until Game of Thrones’ final season was due to start back up, as it’s somewhat appropriate:

Floofy fur coats are definitely a problem for our real-world animal counterparts. We haven’t really explored that concept too much in the world of the Western Deep, but I imagine Rachel might have a lot of fun with it. Probably not to the extent that armor is flying off hilariously, but hey!

Thank you so much for sending this in, Anonymous Reader!

LASTLY! PLEASE DO NOT FORGET TO VOTE IN THIS YEAR’S RINGO AWARDS! THE WESTERN DEEP NEEDS YOUR VOTE!

After you’ve clicked through a CAPTCHA at this link (or just click on the image above!), all you need to do is fill out the ballot with your selections! Please do consider nominating Beyond the Western Deep for Best Webcomic, and any other categories you feel it merits!

The Ringo Awards are one of the few major comic book awards ceremonies that allows fans AND professionals to cast their nominations for comics, so your voice is just as important as Rachel’s or mine! Every vote matters, so please cast yours before the ballot closes in June.